Page ^ Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019
By Izzy FerrisPOLICE have smashed a county lines
gang which forced 40 children from the
same school to deal cannabis and
cocaine – a dealer in every class.
Officers arrested the alleged ringleader of
the gang in a dawn raid on a house on
Wednesday.
Police believe the dealers were controlling a
network of children as young as 14, supplying
them with drugs and kits including bags and
scales. They also fear young girls were pestered
for sex in exchange for cocaine by the group.
It is understood the network of teenagers
recruited by the gang numbers up to 40, which is
the equivalent of one in every class at 1,200-pupil
Kingsdown secondary in Swindon.
Wiltshire Police arrested a 27-year-old man dur-
ing the raid in the town on suspicion of posses-
sion of class B drugs with intent to supply and
inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He
has since been released under investigation.
Sergeant Nathan Perry, who planned the 7am
raid, said: ‘We found the person we’re looking for,
we’ve managed to safeguard the children who
were at risk and we’ve found drugs.
‘We all know about county lines and the risks
associated with that. The difficulty with this type
of drugs operation is that it’s specifically target-‘If they go to police or
teachers, they’ll be harmed’LEAP FORWARD
... BUT IT’S NO
MAGIC BULLET
By Dr Max
Pemberton
T
HE idea that there is a ‘magic
bullet’ to cure sickness and dis-
ease is always popular. Despite
disease often being complicated,
we like to think that there is an
easy, one-size-fits-all answer.
This week sees the promise of yet
another ‘magic bullet’ in the form of
the polypill. This is one tablet that
combines four different medications
which, it is claimed, could nearly halve
the risk of heart attacks and strokes in
middle-aged and older people.
It contains aspirin to thin the blood, a
statin to lower cholesterol and two
blood pressure-lowering medications.
All these medications are readily
available, but the idea is that combin-
ing them into one tablet will make
compliance easier.
The research also suggests that start-
ing everyone on it in their 50s – not
just those with pre-existing cardiovas-
cular disease – could save tens of mil-
lions of lives worldwide.
It is the perfect lifestyle drug; easy to
take, few side effects and cheap. But if
the history of medicine has taught us
anything, it’s that there is rarely a quick
fix for disease – and as much as we’d
like it to, a ‘magic bullet’ doesn’t exist.
Fighting disease requires a number
of approaches. Medication is just one
weapon and shouldn’t be used alone.
Heart disease and strokes are dis-
eases of lifestyle and unfortunately,
while medications may reduce their
impact on our health, they can’t
reduce the damage completely.
Remember, the study showed the
polypill reduced the risk of major car-
diovascular events by an average of 3
per cent. When adjusting for people
taking other heart medications –
which might also be giving a benefit –
the protective effect of the polypill
was reduced to around 20 per cent.
While this is still statistically significant,
it’s a far cry from 100 per cent, meaning
it doesn’t protect completely and thatwithout changes to lifestyle, people are
still at risk. While I broadly welcome this
pill, it must be seen as an adjunct only to
other attempts to reduce the risk of
heart disease and stroke.
There is a concern that such a pill,
hailed as a panacea for two of the big-
gest killers in the western world, will
make people complacent about alter-
ing their lifestyle.
This pill offers a reductive view of dis-
ease. It is aimed at only one conse-
quence of an unhealthy lifestyle, while
there are many. The tablet may lower
your cholesterol, but without changes
to the lifestyle that led to it, there is
still a risk of disease such as cancer.U
NLESS you make changes to your
diet, you may still be overweight
and therefore at risk of diabe-
tes, which in turn might lead to blind-
ness, kidney failure or nerve damage.
There are also very real concerns
about the ‘medicalisation of everyday
life’. Prescribing whole populations a
tablet will mean that many people are
being needlessly medicated.
In fact, the research shows that in
order to save one person from having
a heart attack or stroke, 35 will need
to be treated. That’s fine if you’re that
one person who is saved, but what if
you’re taking the tablet needlessly?
While I’m sure the polypill will offer
some benefits, unfortunately there is
no tablet that removes the need for a
good diet and regular exercise.Continued from Page One
combined pill could prevent more deaths
from heart attacks and strokes, save the
NHS money and provide more conven-
ience for patients. But others are con-
cerned that mass prescription, even to
those with no history of problems, risks
turning healthy people into patients.
Today’s study, published in The Lancet,
monitored almost 7,000 adults over five
years. Study author Professor Tom Mar-
shall, from the University of Birmingham,
said: ‘This is the largest trial confirming
the value of the polypill and showing it is
effective in prevention of heart disease.
‘Millions of Britons are already on stat-
ins and blood pressure drugs, but they
could be offered one polypill instead of
taking lots of different tablets. It
is a much more convenient way of
taking medication.’
The Birmingham researchers and scien-
tists at the University of Tehran moni-
tored adults aged 50 to 75 living in North-
ern Iran. The participants were divided
into two groups of 3,400. They were all
encouraged to adopt a healthier lifestyle,
but one group was also given the polypill
to take every day.
Researchers tracked them over five
years and found the polypill group were
34 per cent less likely to have a heart
attack or stroke. This included a 40 per
cent reduced risk for those with no prior
history of heart disease, and a 20 per cent
reduction in those who had previously
had heart problems.
Participants who stuck to the pill as
directed throughout the five years got the
best results, with those who took it most
days cutting their risk of by 57 per cent.
In total, 202 people in the group that took
the polypill suffered a heart attack or a
stroke, compared with 301 in the group
where only lifestyle advice was given.
Professor Marshall added: ‘The poly-
ble to high-income countries where base-
line preventive medical care to reduce
heart and circulatory disease risk is com-
mon.’ Yesterday a major report from AgeUK found that two million over-65s - 20
per cent of pensioners - now take at least
seven different medications each day.
Comment – Page 16‘They are made in
India for pennies’73,000 wildfires raging in Amazon
Devastation: Firemen tackle a blaze in Mato Grosso, BrazilA RECORD number of
wildfires are raging through
the Amazon as farmers
clear land for fields.
To date there have been
almost 73,000 fires recorded
in the Amazon this year – 83
per cent up on 2018.
More than 9,500 have been
spotted by Brazil’s space
research agency INPE’s
satellites in the past week.
Campaigners claim farm-
ers have been encouraged
to clear land because the
new Brazilian government
is keen to exploit the region
economically and has cut
back on enforcing penalties
for burning down forests.
President Jair Bolsonaro
has also caused a storm by
claiming the fires had been
started by environmental
non-governmental organisa-
tions, which have had fund-
ing cuts, in an attempt to
embarrass his government.
He told a meeting in Bra-
silia: ‘On the question of
burning in the Amazon,
which in my opinion may
have been initiated by NGOs
because they lost money,
what is the intention? To
bring problems to Brazil.’
Greenpeace Brazil said:
‘Since taking office, the gov-
ernment has been system-
atically dismantling Brazil’s
environmental policy.’Mail Foreign Serviceing very young children in order to get them to
deal drugs. Some of the information we’ve been
passed is that children are not only being coerced
into this activity, but they’re also being physically
threatened. If they go to police or teachers they’ll
be harmed.’
Two older teenage boys, both 16, are believed to
have been supplying the network of children at
the school.
The raid came as Wiltshire Police have turned
to modern slavery laws to target dealers who
force children and vulnerable adults to peddle
drugs. Mr Perry said those convicted could expect
sentences of up to 15 years in jail.
‘You’ve got children being exploited and young
kids being forced to run the drugs. We will take it
seriously,’ he said.
‘The sheer nature of the exploitation of these
young people is unacceptable. If we don’t do
something to stop that they’re potentially going
to be at risk for the rest of their lives.
‘Unfortunately, those children that are at risk
now become the suspects of tomorrow and we
lose them completely.
‘They need that positive engagement and we’re
not going to be able to do that until we remove
their handlers, for want of a better word.’
Acting Sergeant Ed Audritt, who led the opera-
tion alongside Mr Perry, said that information
provided by the local community had led to the
raid. He added: ‘The community plays a vital part
in enabling us to disrupt those who are intent on
exploiting vulnerable people through drug deal-
ing – a crime which has a far-reaching and devas-
tating impact.’
Emma Leigh-Bennett, the head teacher at
Kingsdown School, said: ‘Safeguarding childrenCount
40 pu
Crime network
had equivalent
of one dealer
in every class
selling drugs
COMMENTARY
pills can be produced very cheaply, at
around 2 pence a day. They are currently
made by a company in India for pennies,
and would not be much more expensive
to manufacture over here.’
The research will add to pressure for
the drug to be licensed for use in the UK.
Many elderly patients fail to stick to pre-
scription regimes including statins, blood
pressure drugs and several other tablets,
reducing their effectiveness. In 2007 Pro-
fessor Sir Roger Boyle, then the govern-
ment’s heart tsar, said mass polypill pre-
scription would transform the nation’s
health and relieve pressure on the NHS.
The polypill tested by the team, produced
by the Iranian company Alborz Darou,
included aspirin, a statin called atorvasta-
tin and two blood pressure drugs called
hydrochlorothiazide and enalapril.
Experts welcomed the findings, but said
further research was needed before the
introduction of a polypill in the UK. There
are concerns that the mass prescription
of such medication could lead many peo-
ple to forgo a healthy diet and exercise in
the belief the polypill will protect them.
Professor Jeremy Pearson of the British
Heart Foundation said: ‘This study shows
that in low- and middle-income coun-
tries, where the use of medicines to
reduce heart disease risk is low, a single
pill combining several drugs is safe and
effective. The findings are not transfera-